Spencer



(No Model.)

S. C. GARY.

FASTENING DEVICE.

No. 546,838. Patented Sept. 24, 1895.

WITNESSES: INVEN TUB 2:444 MIL CY a/by A TTORNEY AN DREW EGRAHAM, PHUTD-LrmQWAsmNGTONDC llmrrnn Sra'ras P TENT @rrrcn.

SPENCER O. CARY, OF BALDWIN, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO CHARLES S. CARY.

FASTENING DEVICE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 546,838, dated September 24, 1895.

Application filed August 11, 1894- Serial No. 520|013- (No model.)'

To (2% whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, SPENCER O. GARY, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of Baldwin, Queens 'county, New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Fastening Devices, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of the same, in which Figure 1 is a plan or top view of one form of the blank I employ in making my fastener.

Fig. 2 is a perspective View of the bottom plate used therewith. Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the button part of the fastening applied to a glove, a part being shown in section to illustrate the manner of securing the parts of the button together. Fig. 4 is a sectional View taken through the parts as they are being engaged. Fig. 5 is a sectional view through the eyelet employed asa buttonhole, and Figs. 6, 7, 8, and 9 are views of other forms of blanks I sometimes use.

My object is to produce a spring-fastening device which shall be acceptable to the user in that it shall fasten easily, hold well, and present a neat appearance, and to the trade in that it shall be simple in construction, of few parts, easily applied, and shall cost but very little, either for material, construction, or application. The conditions of such a device are quite stringent, and while a number of devices have been constructed which fulfill one or more of them,none of which I have any knowledge meets them all.

In my device, 0 is the central portion of the top plate and E E the extremities. The central portion is bent or pressed, preferably into the form of a globe or head, as shown in Fig. 3, with slits or openings 8 on the sides to permit a spring action, the extremities remaining flat, as shown, in a plane at substantially right angles toaplane passing through the vertical axis of the globe or bent portion. These extremities must be large enough to hold a clamping device and to extend over a sufficient portion of the material to be fastened to take a firm hold. Tangs orpoints that merely pass through the material and are fastened upon the other side are not sufficient to hold the material as is desired. With them the cut through which the tang extends has immediately against it a raw edge entirely unprotected. The manipulation of the fastening in catching and uncatching it stretches this edge and there soon appears a hole adjacent to the tang, which at least presents an objectionable appearance and frequently permits the clinched part of the tang to be drawn through it backward and the device to be thereby detached and lost. This I avoid by using the enlarged extremity, which permits the clamping device to be formed on or secured to it and extends sufficiently beyond the cut edges of the fastened material to prevent their working back and forth and stretching, as described, this being still further prevented by the special form I give to the edge of the extremitiesthat is, a slightly dished shape-as plainly shown in Fig. 3. I then provide an underlying plate forming the other member of the clamp and the support for the top plate. Its form is substantially that of the plain end of a flattened cylinder, the ends being preferably so proportioned as to just fit within the line of the dished portion of the extremities of the topplate that when they are clamped together it may cause such edge to slightly bite into but not through the material, thus effectually preventing the stretching of the material at the cut made for the passage of the shank of the eyelet or equivalent part of the clamp. Such eyelet I usually strike out of the under plate from the central part of its extremities, so spaced that when the upper plate is laid upon it the upper part of the eyelets will register with apertures formed for them, substantially at the center of the extremities of that plate.

The parts being formed as described they are very readily applied. The under plate is laid upon the under side of the material, the shanks of the eyelets forced through it, or through holes in it cut for their insertion, the upper plate placed so that the eyelets pass through its holes, and the eyelets then spread ICO ameter being very slightlyless than the greatest horizontal diameter of the globe-head of the button part to insure its remaining in place after being fastened; but I prefer to use one in which I attain the same edge-clamping action which I have mentioned in describing the clamping of the button part. This end may be attained by having both flanges of the eyelet quite large proportionately, one dish-shaped at the edge and the other slightly smaller, that it may to a degree fit within the edge of the dish; but as it is frequentlyimpracticable to have such large flanges on both sides of the eyelet, I accomplish the desired result by forming what I intend for the outside face of the eyelet with the dished flange f and putting a washer to of suitable size over the other end 6 after that has been passed through the material, and then turning the end (2 over upon the washer and pressing it down to produce the requisite clamping action. I am thus enabled to produce a fastening of great strength and holding capacity with but two pieces, necessarily, in the button part and one in the buttonhole part, though, as stated, I may make the latter part of two pieces, and I might also make the eyelets of the button part separate from either plate without departing from the spirit of my invention.

The action of the two parts when engaged is manifest. The aperture of the eyelet of the buttonhole part being placed over the globe part and pressure applied, that part will elongate slightly vertically and decrease in size horizontally (the slits permitting such action) and thuspermit the eyelet to be forced beyond the greatestdiameter of the stud onto what maybe termed the neck, when the spring action of the globe part having caused it to resume its normal form, the eyelet is held thereon against all pressures of ordinary usage.

I do not desire to limit myself to a device in which the upper plate of either button or buttonhole is dished. The dishing might be altogether omitted and yet leave the central thought of theinvention, which is a top plate in the form of extensions on two or more sides of the projecting stud, as it takes a very firm hold of the material and acts as a brace to the stud, and while I prefer the style of dishing shown, its special clamping action could be attained in a device in which the dished edge was upon the opposite part. Nor do I limit myself to a device in which the eyelets of the button part are part of the under plate. They may be part of the upper plate or independent of either.

\Vhen a very strong fasteningis desired, I make the upper plate of a blank such as is shown in Fig. G-that is, with four extremities for clamping the material-the globe being formed of the intermediate portions and having, of course, when bent up into form, four slits in it. Fig. 7shows its bottom plate. Sometimes I use a form like Fig. 3, when the globe will be formed of the part joining the extremities and the two wings, the lower ends of which wings, when bent into shape, will be free to spring in, being unattached, or I may dispense with the wings, too, and use a form like Fig. 9, when the button will not have a strictly globe shape, but will be more in the form of a loop, narrower at the bottom or neck than just above that point. The extremities will, however, be preserved, and the firm clamping of the material and the spring action of the button will be present in each of these modifications.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a fastening device a central spring stud or button having a head in two or more sections with slots which at least partially separate one section from another, and provided with two or more extremities, each integral with some division of the stud, bent at substantially a right angle to its axis, and each expanded into a plate adapted to rest upon one face of the material to be fastened, and an under plate adapted to rest upon the opposite face of said material, and to extend across under two of the plates of the upper member, together with a fastening device adapted to hold said plates together, substantially as set forth.

2. In a fastening device a button composed of one plate having a central portion formed into a spring stud, with slots at the sides and two or more extremitiesin the form of plates, adapted to rest upon one face of the material to be fastened, and a second plate adapted to rest upon the opposite face of said material, and to extend across under two of the plates of the upper member, together with a fastening device for each of the plates of the upper member, adapted to hold said plates together, all substantially as set forth.

3. In a fastening device a central spring stud or button having a head in two or more sections with slots which at least partially separate one section from another, and provided with two or more extremities each integral with some division of the stud, bent at substantially a right angle to its axis, expanded into a plate E, adapted to rest upon one face of the material to be fastened, and to be secured to an under plate by a clamping device, all substantially as set forth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my invention I have signed my name, in presence of two witnesses,this10th day of August, 18%.

SPENCER C. CARY.

Witnesses:

PETER B. VERMILYA, A. G. W. VERMILYA.

IIO 

